Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-12-18

we want, is because SO few of US are per-
sistent and patient.
Ifany woman is placed in situation
where she is deprived of the comforts
and the appreciation SO necessary to our
happiness, and she longs ardently enough
to better her condition. the way will be
opened for her, and it will be right and
wise for her to walk therein.
cannot understand how woman who
has been accorded that greatest of all
gifts from heaven, q happy home life, can
desire any career which interferes with il.
The result of my observation does not
Ieadsme to believe that women who are
sheltered with love and protection andsp
precistion, do long for the plaudits OF the
world.
A great deal is said and written of the
young sgirl or worshiped wife VINO neg
lects kind parents or devoted husband
to pursue q career. II you will take pains
to investigate the unwritten history of
such cases, you will find in almost every
instance skeleton whose rafting bones
drove that daughter or wife from her home
into public life.
Men are gwen to making sarcastic re-
marks concerning the great horde Of
women lecturers, actors, readers and
performers Of all kinds now before the
public. Our daily papers TEEN with para
graphs OF ridicule or advice to women to
stay at home and attend to their families.
II every man who takes upon himself
the voluntary obligations of matrimony
performed his whole duty as husband and
father. there would be fewer women be-
fore the public to-day. The girl or wife
who hes to tease. beg or pOut in order to
obtain few dollars for her own use,
naturally lies awake nights planning some
method of earning money.
knew the daughter Ct man whose
riches were counted among the hundreds
of thousands, and yet she was obliged TO
resort to petty ruses and humiliating
schemes to get q collar Of pin money.
She Was allowed to run large bills, which
her father scanned and mathematical
item by item each month, but he did not
consider the female members of his
household competent to carry a purse.
When the daughter ran away, and went
On the stage az q third class actress, the
world was shocked that she should leave
her elegant home and devoted parents for
the glare Of the footlights.
Overheard a well dressed and fine
lof king man recently, in a railroad car,
scolding his wife for an extravagant pur-
chase. She showed him the sample of a
new dress she had purchased, and asked
with q timld look if he thought 1t wss
pretty.
SHOW much did you pay for it 2" he
asked, and her answer, given with a
deprecating glance, brought forth such
groWl and sneer that the poor Wife's
pleasure in her purchase must have been
-c%a MI In limo ifn n
should have put the dress up at auction,
and presented Sir GROWER with the pro-
ceeds of the sale, and then I would have
Joined the circus or minstrel troop, If I
could find no better method of earning q
dress for myself.
Two women, who are working outside
of homes for livlihood, told me recently
with tears in their ewes, that they would
consider themselves the most blest of
mortals to be shut within the walls OF
some humble cottage, where only faint
echoes from the world could reach them.
Both women we're driven from their
homes by the skeleton of poverty. And
yet / have heard one of these women
commented On severely as "a bold seeker
after notoriety ~ She is simply doing
what she is compelled to do to keep the
wolf from the door.
There is occasionally born into the
world woman whose whole nature
rushes like the tide Of q mighty ocean to-
ward the shore Of some especial career.
Rosa Bonheur was one Of these, the first
Mrs. Siddons was another, Anna Dickfn-
son was another. In each of these women
the force of her peculiar genius was SO
CREST that no perfection of home life, no
opulence of wealth could have kept her
from fulfilling her destiny. They did not
choose q career, . career chose them.
Msny other names could be added to the
list, yet such richly and remarkably dow
cred women are the exception.
The rule Is, that the women who pur-
sue the hard path OF public career,
which deprives them of a quiet domestic
| life, are women who have been driven
| into it by stern necessity.
| To be queen OF happy home, lo~ed
and appreciated by q kind husband and
little children, to live only for their ap-
| probation and respect, surely this is the
grandest and truest sphere possible for
woman. It is the only genuine happi-
| ness which earth sffords, all else is S
| mere imitation. In no reform can women
| do work so beneficial to mankind as in
creasing the numoer of happy homes in
| the land.
But this work is not given every
woman TO do. Good husbands, who will
love, respect, appreciate and support their
wives and DAUGHTERS, do not stand on
every threshold ready to lead all women
into this earthly paradise. And there
fore it is every woman's duty to be pre-
pared to meet the world single-handed.
| II were blessed with daughter,
should teach her some method of self
support as religiouslv as I should teach
her to love God. But my daily prayer
would be that she might never go forth
from the shelter Of the parental roof, save
o. the queen of good husbands home
ELLA WHEELER WILCOX.
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